County land steward earns state award

Peter Hausmann credited with helping to preserve tens of thousands of acres

Peter Hausmann was recognized by the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association for decades of land preservation.

The Pennsylvania Land Trust Association (PALTA) honored Chester County land preservationist Peter Hausmann with its Lifetime Conservation Leadership Award last week.

Hausmann has served as chairman of the Board of Trustees of Natural Lands Trust for the past 13 years. During his tenure as chairman, the regional non-profit organization has preserved more than 35,000 acres of open space, the single most productive period in the organization’s 60-year history, according to a news release from the trust.

“Peter Hausmann isn’t a household name. But it should be for those in metropolitan Philadelphia,” especially Chester County, said Andy Loza, executive director of PALTA. “In the coming decades, when residents and visitors enjoy the county’s parks and protected open spaces, there’s a big chance that they owe their joy in part to the work of Peter Hausmann.”

Hausmann was also a founding trustee of the Willistown Conservation Trust and of a non-profit organization that leveraged his real estate expertise to purchase and resell more than $80 million of land to conservation buyers in the Willistown area, the release said.

The award, an honor given to only nine other individuals, was given to Hausmann for his decades of leadership and dedication in conserving special places and landscapes. It was presented in conjunction with the 11th Annual Pennsylvania Land Conservation Conference held in State College, the release said.

In 1989, Hausmann helped to found and chaired Save Open Space, a citizens’ group that successfully shepherded Chester County’s pioneering open space bond issue. He then helped to establish the open space program that became the model for other county initiatives around the region. In 1990, President George H. W. Bush awarded Hausmann the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Award in recognition of his work on the county program, the release said.

“Peter’s unique vision of land preservation, not just for aesthetic and scientific and cultural reasons, but equally for economic development reasons, has helped to invigorate the land trust movement, both regionally in southeastern Pennsylvania and nationally,” said Jack Terrill, vice-chair of Natural Lands Trust’s Board of Trustees. “We have been blessed with Peter’s energy and drive and are so pleased that he is receiving the Lifetime Conservation Leadership Award.”